Mental Health
Youth mental health is worsening. From 2012 to 2017, the prevalence of past-year Major Depressive Episode (MDE) increased from 8.66 percent to 13.01 percent of youth ages 12-17. Now over two million youth have MDE with severe impairment.
- The rate of suicides per 100,000 increased from 13.5 in 2020 to 14.0 in 2021, which is still lower than the modern peak of 14.2 in 2018.
- The number of suicides was higher in nine months during 2021 compared to 2020, with the largest increase occurring in October (+11%).
- The increase in suicides was higher among males (4%) than females (2%), as was the increase in the suicide rate (+3% for males and +2% for females).
- The largest increase in the rate of suicide occurred among males ages 15-24 – an 8% increase. Suicide rates also increased for males ages 25-34, 35-44, and 65-74.
- In 2019-2020, 20.78% of adults were experiencing a mental illness. That is equivalent to over 50 million Americans.
- Millions of adults in the U.S. experience serious thoughts of suicide, with the highest rate among multiracial individuals. The percentage of adults reporting serious thoughts of suicide is 4.84%, totaling over 12.1 million individuals. 11% of adults who identified with two or more races reported serious thoughts of suicide in 2020 – 6% higher than the average among all adults.
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